Experiments
by PathlessSpore
Summary: They awoke amidst chaos, scrambling for answers and their lives. They didn't know each other, but they were all connected to one destiny: To finally bring down Cerberus, once and for all. And perhaps they'll find what their looking for in a galaxy that sees them as monsters. Rated T for mild language.
1. Prologue

Mass Effect: Experiments  
A Mass Effect Fanfiction  
Action/Adventure  
Prologue

* * *

Years had passed since the defeat of the reapers and the disappearance of the Illusive Man, and the organization known as Cerberus faded into memory. Many thought they had disbanded since their downfall at the hands of "The Shepard", but unbeknownst to the galaxy: They were hiding in plain sight. Eventually, as the years passed and the search for the remains of the organization was called off, the galaxy forgot about Cerberus and the fear they inspired.

Then, the disappearances began.

Significantly unique children from Earth were the first to be taken. Four in total, only a few days old and the search for their whereabouts lasted for months. Eventually they were declared missing and dead, and the planet moved on.

But human children were not the only ones to go missing.

On Tuchanka a Krogan was gone; significant in power and cunning, few dared to cross paths with him, including that of Urdnot Wrex. It was strange for a Krogan of his prowess to suddenly disappear, but was soon dismissed.

On Thessia a young Asari was the next to be reported gone. She was of great power and status having the powers of a Matriarch while only being a Maiden. To find out she too had disappeared spread unrest among the Asari, but after months of searching they turned up nothing. They gave the young Maiden a memorial and continued on with their lives.

Elsewhere in the galaxy a Cabal had been sent out on mission for Primarch Garrus Vakarian. Her very last transmission was from an abandoned Cerberus vessel; the Primarch sent a small squad to find her.

They only found her Omni-tool.

Her memorial was indeed a sad day on Palaven.

The final one to go missing was a Salarian on his home world of Sur'Kesh. He was the Grandson of the Salarian scientist, Mordin Solus. Do to his inability to live up to his ancestors accomplishments he was often seen as a disgrace to his family.

Then one day, he just simply vanished.

* * *

Eighteen years had since passed since the chain of mysterious disappearances. The victims had all but faded from memory.

But deep inside the Perseus Veil Cerberus was anything but dead. A hidden facility contained hundred experiment pods that had been their work for the past several years. There were four in particular, scattered about the facility containing humans floating in clear liquid. They did not care that outside the alarms were active and lights flashed red, for all they knew was the imprints and memories that would eventually help them function in society.

For eighteen years they knew nothing but the tank, but their creators should have known they could not be contained forever.

* * *

**_A/N: So a friend of mine asked me to post this to my fanfiction. Being a good friend, I said yes. Keep in mind that both me and my said friend are co-authors in this story. He comes up with the ideas, I make it look pretty. Feel free to leaves some reviews, and add some constructive criticism, hopefully this will eventually be moved to his own fanfiction profile if he ever decides to make one._**

**_Loves!_**

**_PathlessSpore_**


	2. Escape

Mass effect: Experiments  
Mass Effect Fanfiction  
Chapter 1  
Escape

* * *

She awoke amidst chaos.

A woman with long brown hair fell out of her tank, knees hitting the steel floor hard. She cried out in pain and landed on her side, she lay there for several long moments' ears ringing until eventually alarms began to fade in. She shivered, bracing her hands against the grating and tried to push herself up. As she struggled to stand she flickered open her eyes, glaring hard at the blurry ground before her. Her yellow gaze turned up, flinching at the flashing red lights.

The world still blurred, she managed to stand only to stumble weakly on her own disused legs. She scowled and tried again. The world came into focus painfully fast, eyes darted around the room as she braced herself against the tank. The only other notable object in the room was the locker, other than that it was bare.

She walked on weak legs to the locker, fingers grazing the name etched into the steel plating.

Viera. Her name.

She opened it, hands reaching inside for the armor and the guns she found within. She gazed confusedly at them only to cry out painfully as memories flashed across her vision. A creature she did not recognize slipped on her armor, flicking the clips into place and shouldered the guns across her back. Viera shook violently, stunned by the ferocity of the images and how fast they had come.

Who was that creature, and why was it in _her _head?

But Viera followed its example and soon was buckling the clips into place. She was searching for the bracers when she noticed her hands were covered what looked like grey streaks of hard skin. Curiously she punched the locker door and was surprised when she dented it without hurting her hand. She studied her fingers closely noting the small claws with jagged edges. A small part of her noted that this was not normal, but was quickly drowned out by a voice who told her to grab her guns and get moving.

She grabbed the sniper rifle and stuck it to her back, and reached for a SMG next. Strapping it to her side she went for the hand cannon next, sticking it to her other hip. Sure that she had everything in order she ran to the door, and quietly pulled it open. She stuck her head around the threshold carefully, peeking out into the hallway. It was empty save for the alarms and flashing lights, taking a deep breath Viera stepped out into the hall and ran.

As Viera came to a crossroad she paused.

"_Why are you hesitating?"_ Snapped the voice in her head, "_Hesitancy will get you killed. Do you even know where you're going?"_

"Don't argue with the voices in your head…" Viera muttered as she took a left down the hall. But the voice was right; she had no idea where she was going,

"_This place must have a command center, an area with security cameras and information. Maybe even a starship out of here. Find it, information is power."_

For a moment Viera wondered why she was taking orders from a fictitious woman inside her head, but again it had a point. The question was, where would she find this command center? Footsteps down the hall caught her attention,

"_Don't freeze, if you don't want to fight then hide; then you might learn something about this place."_

Viera scanned the hall quickly and noted a grate cover the air duct. Quickly she pried it open and crawled in, closing the grate just as footsteps ran past. She held her breath for one long moment, several male voices telling each other get to the reinforced tank before the power failed.

Viera furrowed her brow as they ran past. She waited for several minutes and sure that they were gone she crawled out of the duct. She was barely on her feet before something with the force of ten men threw her off her feet and into a nearby wall. Viera grunted, drawing her pistol on a woman dressed in full white and black armor, hands glowing with a strange blue white.

"_She's a biotic, she most likely has a barrier around her."_

"Thank you, strange voice in my head," muttered Viera as she ducked behind a crate, only to have it blasted away with a powerful invisible force,

"_Shoot her in the head!"_

"Shut up!" She snapped as she rolled behind a wall, she closed her eyes against the hail of gunfire trying to think. Another vision popped into her head, the strange creature tapped a glowing tool on her wrist and from her hands a ball of fire left her hands and towards her enemies.

Viera's eyes snapped open and she looked down at her right hand. She flicked her wrist and an orange glowing tool appeared, instinctively she tapped a single button and produced the fire. Quickly she dove out of cover and threw her fireball in a high arc. It exploded just behind her opponent's feet, knocking her off her feet. The explosion rocked the hallway, knocking panel's off the wall, exposing live electrical wires. They gave Viera an idea.

She charged; as she came in closer she braced herself just as her opponent stood and kicked her in the chest as hard as she could.

The woman coughed as she was sent flying back into the wall, her body hitting the visible wires. She screamed in pain as volts of electricity were sent coursing through her system. When the wires were spent the woman slumped against the wall, too much alive for Viera's liking.

"_Don't hesitate; kill her before she regains her senses!"_

Her pistol was trained on the other woman's head, who groaned softly holding her forehead. The voice in her head screamed at her, telling her to finish her off. Viera hesitated long enough for another figure to dart in,

"Stop!" A human darted between them, green eyes glared at her under his brown hair, "Don't need to kill her, she's harmless now."

"How do you know?" Snapped Viera as the young boy turned to check on the injured woman. He bent her head forward to check her neck and deftly plucked something from her scalp. He turned back to Viera and held the small object up in the light. It was a damaged chip,

"Control chip implanted into the spinal cord, destroyed when you threw her into the live wires."

Viera scoffed and holstered her pistol, eyes flickering down the hall to make sure no more surprises appeared. Slowly the woman came to, with some help from the strange young man,

"Where am I?" she said groggily, holding her head between her hands,

"Easy, don't overdo it. Your name?"

It took a moment for the woman to answer, "My name is Elria, what happened?"

"You may know more than I, just woke up from the Tank. You, you look like you've been out for a while."

Elria groaned, "I don't remember much, just falling out of that tank. I fought when they tried to put that chip on me; after that, nothing."

She looked up at Viera who watched the pair, "I'm sorry if I hurt you." She was given a scoff as a reply. "Who are you?" Elria turned her blue eyes to the boy, who smiled confidently,

"Jarak, pleased to meet you."

"Yeah, I don't mean to cut in on the pleasantries, but in case you've forgotten we're still in danger." Snapped Viera angrily, "We can get to know each other after we've escaped."

"Point taken, but can't escape from a place we don't know anything about. Where are we, who is trying to capture us and what is their purpose?" Jarak paced the floor, talking breathlessly,

"Let's stick with trying to figure out where we are first," Noted Elria, "Then we can figure out how to get out of this place."

The group agreed.

They were walking down the hall, ears strained for the sounds of footsteps but everything remained eerily quiet,

"Where is everybody?" Elria checked a nearby door filled with storage supplies, the group quickly went through it stocking up on extra ammo,

"Probably at the reinforced tank they were so worried about."

"I remember something about that," noted Viera's companion, "They were talking about it when they were trying to put that control chip on me."

"They who?" questioned Jarak,

"I think they're scientists; I don't remember much but I recall that they were concerned about opening up that tank until they made a stronger control chip. Whatever is in that tank must be powerful."

"Interesting…" noted the brow haired boy, "It hold certain possibilities."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend…" muttered Viera as the group turned a corner,

"Exactly so."

Suddenly Viera ducked behind a nearby crate, motion for her allies to do so. Carefully, she peeked around the corner and noted the guards patrolling in front of one clear glass room.

"Their control center?" she whispered, Jarak nodded,

"Most likely, we can probably find useful information there."

"I don't like our chances against that many guards," noted Elria, Viera nodded counting out more than thirteen guards. "Whatever is in that room must be important."

"_Learning to stand on your own is all well and good," _said the voice in her head carefully, "_but sometimes having teammates is better, you have a sniper rifle don't you? See those pipes overhead, there's enough space for you to squeeze through and easily snipe enemies from there. Have your squad draw most of the fire towards them, leaving you hidden and free to pick off the most dangerous and unaware targets._"

When Viera recited the plan to her companions, excluding the fact it came from the voice in her head, they were instantly up for the idea. They took the time to ready their weapons as Viera climbed up onto the pipes as carefully as she could. When she was ready, she took a deep breath and lined her eye to the scope. With a flick of the wrist all hell broke loose.

The firefight was intense; Elria and Jarak were pinned down by the crates as Viera sat up in relative safety in the pipes. A stray bullet caught her every once in a while but only did enough to damage her shields. One by one the guards in heavy armor fell, either by her teammates below or by a well-placed shot to the head. What felt likes hours turned out to be a few minutes and soon she was kicking down the door to the command center, training her pistol on a scared man in a lab coat.

"Please," he pleaded pathetically, "Don't hurt me!"

Elria stepped past Viera, holding out her hands in a non-threatening manner, "It's okay, we just want information."

"Anything, I'll tell you anything you want, just don't hurt me!"

"Where are we?" Demanded Viera, gun still trained at him,

"In a secret lab facility in the Perseus Veil, it's ran and funded by an organization known as Cerberus. They're a pro-human group working on driving humanity towards a brighter future."

Memories flashed across Viera's mind, she winced as her brain strained with the information causing her to lower her pistol. Perseus Veil, a nebula located on the outer edges of the Milky Way Galaxy. It was once the home cluster of a race of aliens known as Quarians, who had been driven from their home world by a race of sentient synthetic machines known as the Geth. Her brain tried to follow up on information about the Quarians and the Geth but the pain was too much for Viera to bear so she focused on the name Cerberus.

An instant and violent hatred welled up at the name. What the scientist had said was true, they were a pro-human group, but he hadn't told them the entire truth. They were a group of pro-human extremists who thought they were above morality, going so far as to perform inhumane experiments.

"Don't lie," Viera snapped, she retrained her pistol on the man, "Cerberus is nothing but a bunch of extremists who care only for themselves! If it wasn't for you, the Reaper War could have ended sooner!"

"Viera what are you talking about!" demanded Elria, "Drop the gun-"

"Shut up!"

"But we still care about humanity!" cried the scientist as he cowered under Viera's intense glare,

"Liar! You're nothing but a bunch of xenophobic bastards who crave power, and you deserve nothing less than death!"

"Viera, no!"

But it was too late, without so much as single bit of remorse she pulled the trigger and watched with satisfaction as his head snapped back and he slumped onto the floor, blood running from the bullet wounds. But she didn't revel in the kill for long, Elria's fist met the side of her head, knocking her back onto a control panel,

"Why did you do that!" she screamed as her Biotics flared in anger,

"He's with Cerberus! He deserved to die!"

"So what, that doesn't justify what you did!"

"And what about they did to us!" Viera snapped back, causing Elria to flick her eyes away, "Don't play dumb with me, if this is a secret facility then what does that make us? We came out of breeding tanks, and we all show signs that we're not human, at least not fully."

Viera pushed herself from the panel and stalked up to Elria and clasped her jaw, shoving her into the light better. Her skin, normal in low light, had a blue tint to it,

"We're experiments of Cerberus, human and something else, abominations! They did this to us, and now we're left scrambling for our lives while they try to clean up their mess, which includes either controlling us or killing us, in case you didn't get the big picture!"

Elria jerked out of her grip, she pointed to the dead scientist, "That still doesn't mean you should have killed him."

"He made his choice, and he paid for it in the end. I regret nothing."

"Argue differences of morality later," noted Jarak, finally butting as he walked to the control panel, "For right now, concentrate on escape." He tapped a few keys, muttering to himself as he worked. Elria read over his shoulders while Viera kept lookout by the door.

"Interesting, found information packets on experiments Cerberus was running, hopefully they'll download into Omni-tool for later analysis, if we get out of here. While download progresses, share information. We're on a space station in Perseus Veil and the only way off this station is on the escape vessel three floors below us."

A loud alarm made the group jump; the screens that had been showing the information download progress flashed red and displayed a large error message. Jarak muttered worriedly under his breath,

"Damn," he cursed as he tapped a few buttons on his Omni-tool, "Data packets were corrupted during download, hidden security bug activated deleting important data and sending an alert to the guards. Seems we needed a scientist's pass code for full access.

"See!" said Elria indignantly, Viera scowled at her,

"What's done is done, but I still don't regret my decision."

They glared at each other for one long moment before they readied their weapons and stalked out the door. There was a period of intense silence as they located the nearest elevator, with help from their Omni-Tools, and stepped on board. It was magnified when the contraption closed encasing Elria and Viera inside. Thankfully, Jarak stood between the two.

"Alright, the Cerberus Guards will be in one of two places," muttered Viera as she tried to dispel the tension she created, "Either at that reinforced tank, or guarding the one vessel off this hell hole. Since an alarm was sent out, my guess is that they've sent a squad of men to protect the Escape ship. So be prepared for a fight."

"And who made you the leader of this group?"

Viera rolled her eyes, "Keep in mind blue-skin the only reason you have a cognitive thought is because of me, so quit your bitchin'."

The elevator came to a sudden stop, the gears grinding as the lights dimmed and suddenly turned red. Jarak tapped at his Omni-tool,

"Seems power has finally failed, might have caught a lucky break, Cerberus guards will be called to the reinforced tank now."

"I hate to be them right now," Viera muttered as she looked for an exit. The escape hatch caught her eyes and she quickly shot the bolts holding it into place. Without a word, Elria used her Biotics to knock it off and jumped out. She helped Jarak out first, who in turn gave Viera a hand out. They found a nearby ladder down and climbed down until they hit their floor. It took a combined effort of Viera's unnatural strength and Elria's Biotics to open the elevator doors, and when they did they were greeted to a very nasty surprise.

A creature stood at the door of the escape vessel; it towered above them, gray skinned, bulky and very intimidating.

"_Yahg, don't underestimate it, it may be bulky but it moves fast for its size."_

"Great…" muttered Viera, pulling out her SMG,

"Well, well, well, it seems the lab rats have escaped from their cages." Snickered the beast, "It's a shame, you've come so far only to die here."

"And what makes you think killing us will be that easy?" she snapped back hotly,

"Because, I've watched you grow for eighteen years. I've implanted your skills and tactics; I've made you into who you are. I know everything about you!"

"You may have created us," Said Elria defiantly, standing next to Viera, "But that doesn't mean you can stop all of us at once!" Jarak nodded as he stood on her other side. The sniper held no illusions, their chances of survival were thin, but if she was going to die she wasn't going down without a fight.

The Yahg charged at them, intent on barreling them down. The group ducked out of the way just in time, Elria threw her Biotics at him while Viera tried to attract his attention with her gunfire. A flaming ball of fire hit his armor, causing him to cry out as it damaged his tough skin. They kept at him, dancing just out of his reach and away from his gunfire until they managed to wear him down,

"I've done more than I could have ever hoped," panted the Yahg as he brought up his Omni-Tool, "But the Maw of Cerberus ordered you to be destroyed, no matter the cost."

"Alert, Self-Destruct security protocol has been initiated. Five minutes until Self-Destruct."

"Are you crazy?!" Cried Elria as she came close to him with a charge, "You'll die to!"

"If it means keeping you from escaping, then I'll gladly die!"

The Yahg grabbed Elria by the throat, squeezing mercilessly as she fought his hands. He ignored the hail of gunfire on his back, intent on killing the blue-tinted biotic first. Viera's mind raced; if she didn't act soon Elria was going to die. But the tremor of heavy footfalls caught her attention, and the Yahg's. Suddenly the door to the ship bay bent like a large body had tried smashing through it. A few seconds later the body of a large man came crashing through, bending the door as if it had been paper.

Viera deduced that he was the one in the reinforced tank, and now she understood why. He was large, not as big as the Yahg but still big enough to be intimidating. His skin had a light scaly look to it, and his forehead looked like it had been built to head-butt through steel. It took the bulky young man a moment to determine what the situation was before charging full force.

He knocked the Yahg down like it was nothing, allowing Elria to fly free from his grasp. As she went to hit the ground the newcomer reached out and grasped her, quickly handing her off to Viera who had come running up behind him,

"Get to the escape ship!" he said as he turned back to their opponent, cracking his knuckles threateningly, "I'll take care of him…"

The two large rivals faced off, circling each other like feral predators. The Yahg's claws began to glow bright bluish-white and threw a large amount of Biotics at his challenger, who charged at him once again. The young man shrugged off the attack like it was nothing, running in at full speed. He pulled his fist back, and using his momentum introduced the Yahg to his knuckles.

Viera cringed as she heard a few bones break in the creatures face as she and Jarak drug Elria into the vessel.

"We should just leave him," muttered Viera, her hands itching to close the hatch. Jarak shot her a scathing glare,

"After he helped us? Don't think so."

"Fine," snapped the sniper, "But he's got until the last minute before we take this ship out of here. Get her somewhere stable, I'm starting up this bus."

Viera ran up to the cockpit and jumped into the pilot's seat. He hand flew across buttons she did not recognize, but the vehicle started with a loud roar. Minutes ticked by as the Yahg and the boy continued to fight, until finally the smaller of the two rivals managed to grab the creature and ram him into the nearby wall.

Viera did not feel queasy around blood, but she cringed as the large boy walked towards the ship, leaving the Yahg a bloody mess. The Self-Destruct countdown tapered off into the last thirty seconds as he made a mad dash inside the ship. With a headlong dive he made it in just as the door closed and Viera hit the gas, leaving the facility just in time to avoid being sent up in a blazing inferno. Chunks of debris was sent flying out into space as the group breathed a collective sigh of relief. Viera put the ship on autopilot and wandered into the back, Jarak and the new boy were talking over Elria's body.

"How is she?"

"Nothing to severe, bruises around her neck and a minor concussion. It'd probably be best to have a professional to check her out though." Jarak swept his Omni-Tool over her one last time before turning to his larger companion, "Don't believe I've gotten your name."

"The name's Rognot," he said proudly as he crossed his arms and stuck out his chin. Viera rolled her eyes,

"Why did you help us?"

"You mean beside the point you were fighting over the only ship on that station? No one hurts pretty lady on my watch!"

"Right…"

"Since we're introducing ourselves, Jarak." The brown haired boy held out his hand for Rognot to take, the larger one just eyed it and snorted. Undeterred Jarak pointed to their pilot, "She is Viera, and this is Elria."

"What now?" Said Viera as she leaned up against the wall and crossed her arms, Jarak shrugged,

"What now? Now we do what we want, we're free. Free to find out who we are, and whose DNA we share. We're all not fully human, even you know this Viera."

"And then there's Cerberus," the sniper pointed out, "They're a menace on the galaxy."

"True, perhaps if we pursue Cerberus we'll find answers."

Rognot gave a chuckle, "We'll if we're going after Cerberus then we're gonna need a better ship than this; and besides, where do we start?"

Jarak tapped his Omni-tool and walked to a nearby computer. He fiddled with the keys for a moment before he brought up the corrupted Data Packets on the screen,

"Answers could be in here, but they'll be limited since more important data was destroyed. Let's see…" He hummed softly as his eyes followed words and charts.

"_We could go to Palaven."_

Viera nearly jumped as the voice in her head spoke softly. Her eyes flickered to Jarak, who was busy at his Kiosk, and then to Rognot who was caring for Elria. She wondered if the others had the same problems as her. Quickly she turned away and went towards the cockpit. When she was sure she was out of earshot she said aloud,

"What is Palaven?" she climbed into the pilot's seat,

"_Palaven is a where, not a what. It's the Turian home world."_

"How do you know?"

The voice was silent for a long time. Viera got the feeling it was trying to struggle with something, _"I don't…remember, it's all fuzzy but I know that you'll find the help you need there."_

"So you can give all sorts of useful battle information, but you can't remember why you know something?"

"_Hey, do you think this is easy for me, being a voice inside your head? I used to be someone. Someone with a body, somebody with family and friends, and I can't remember their names and sometimes I can't see their faces. It's all I can do to keep from fading away, like that damn Yahg wanted me too."_

Viera sat in shameful silence. It never occurred to her that the voice in her head used to be somebody,

"I'm sorry, whoever you are, for what happened to you."

"_I don't want to fade," _the voice said wearily, "_Not until those Cerberus bastards pay for what they did to me."_

"We will, I promise." Viera tapped at the controls and brought the ship out of autopilot. She looked at the map and found the nearest Mass Relay. Jarak came up not a few minutes later,

"What are you doing?"

"We're going to Palaven," the pilot said firmly,

"But Viera-" he said uncertainly,

"We're going to find something there, I just know it."

* * *

**_A/N: Chapter 1. This will be the only chapter for a while, or at least until the next chapter comes in. Please leaves some reviews and use CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM._**

**_Loves!  
PathlessSpore_**


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